What's in a Name?

"That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"
(Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare)

Yes, I did just quote Shakespeare. No, I did not cite my quote in proper MLA format. I have been in winter break mode for 2 months; I think I forgot what that is. 

This is my first post, so I figure the best place to start is with an introduction. "What is your name?" is the first question I typically ask people. So, it will be the first one I answer. I will talk about two names: my own, and the city where I will be living for the next few months. 

Arielle

My name is Arielle. My friends call me Ary; you can too if you want to be my friend. Anyway, I really like my name. It's Hebrew, but the spelling is French. My parents decided to do that because my mom thought the -elle ending made the (commonly male) name more feminine. 

Unfortunately, this makes my name utterly unpronouncable to someone speaking Spanish. In Spanish, you pronounce each letter, and the double L is pronounced as an "ey" (as in hey), and in Argentine Spanish it's "sh". So, put that all together and you get A-ri-esh-e. Yeah, I don't know what to do with that either. (Thanks mom!) 

What am I going to do about this? My first idea is to hope that people will just happen to know how to pronounce -elle. If not, I will do what I always do and say my name whenever I sense someone's tongue is about to trip.

Buenos Aires

According to spanishdict.com, Buenos Aires means...Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina. Thanks for nothing online translator. Using my knowledge of Spanish, I can deduce that Buenos Aires roughly translates into "good air." It is a port city, so having good air would be important to the people who named it way back when. After all, they needed wind to move their ships in the right direction. 

Fun fact: Buenos Aires is just the shortened version of the city's given name. Spanish conquistador Juan de Garay named the settlement Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Nuestra Senora la Virgen María de los Buenos Aires ("City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Good Airs"). I am so glad someone decided to shorten it.